Hello, I'm Beth!

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My time working in defence

I worked on defence policy for a number of years in my day job and in my free time I ran Labour Friends of the Forces – the organisation reached out to vets to ask what could Labour do to help the community and we encouraged those who were interested in politics to stand for Parliament. In 2015, we supported three veterans from the Army and RAF to stand for Parliament.

During this time, we also led campaigns to back War Widows who lost their husband’s pensions if they married after bereavement. We knew this was wrong and campaigned to ensure the widows receive the pensions regardless of whether they went on remarry. The government finally relented. It was a small sum of money for the Government but a huge amount for each woman who had lost out. The organisation also launched the Veterans Interview Programme, where we got businesses to sign up to guarantee an interview to vets so they got their foot in the door – big businesses like John Lewis signed up.

I visited major defence bases around the UK and visited RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus where the jets were flying out for operations against Isis. I visited NATO for briefings on the role of the organisation after the Cold War and the importance of continued cooperation. I know how vital our role in the world is and how important our commitment to international security is.

I spoke to the husbands and wives of service personnel and saw first-hand some of the difficulties with decent accommodation, schooling and getting their own employment outside of the military. I visited veterans’ groups across the country but one in Burnley stood out – it was so valued by the community and was genuinely life changing for the guys there.

If elected, I commit to:

✅ a 5% pay rise to all serving military personnel✅ renewed efforts for multilateral disarmament✅ backing spending of at least 2% of GDP on defence✅ maintaining our commitment to NATO✅listen to service personal, veterans and families to understand what more can be done while in the forces and afterwards.